Chancellor

Dr. C. Rangarajan was appointed as the Chancellor of IFHE on November 2, 2015. He is a leading economist of India who has played a key role both as an academic and as a policy maker. He has held several important positions and has served as both the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Till May 2014, Dr. Rangarajan was Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, with the rank of Cabinet Minister, a position he had held since January 2005, except during 2008-09 when he served as Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha).

Prior to this, he was Chairman of the Twelth Finance Commission, a constitutional commission set up every five years to determine the sharing of tax revenues between the central and the state governments.

Dr. Rangarajan was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1992 to 1997 at a time when India had embarked on wide-ranging economic reforms which fundamentally altered the structure of the Indian economy. He was actively involved in the design and implementation of the reform agenda. The path-breaking reforms that he implemented during this period include deregulation of interest rates, strengthening of the banking system by a gradual tightening of prudential norms, creating and nurturing of financial markets and giving them depth and vibrancy, shifting to market determined exchange rates, making the rupee convertible on the current account, and cessation of the automatic monetization of the budget deficit.

After completing his Honours Degree from Madras, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. In the United States, he taught at the Wharton School of Finance & Commerce, University of Pennsylvania, and the Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University. In India, he taught at Loyola College, Madras; University of Rajasthan; the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi; and for well over a decade and a half, at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He was for a time Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington.

Dr. Rangarajan was President of the Indian Economic Association in 1988 and President of the Indian Econometric Society in 1994. He is also currently the President of the Centenary (2017) of the Indian Economic Association.​

He is a recipient of several prestigious awards. Notable among these are Honorary Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; the Alumni Award for Outstanding Leadership given by the Wharton India Economic Forum; and the ‘Finance Man of the Decade’ award given by the Bombay Management Association. In recognition of his distinguished service to the country, the government honoured him with the Padma Vibhushan (the country’s second highest civilian award) in 2002.

Dr. Rangarajan is currently Chairman, Madras School of Economics, and President, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He has been appointed recently as Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad.

Previous Chancellors

Dr. C H Hanumantha Rao (2012-15)
Padma Bhushan awardee and Former Member,
Planning Commission of India,
former Chairman, Centre for Economic and
Social Studies & former Chancellor
of University of Hyderabad.

Dr. Abid Hussain (2009 – 2012)
Padma Bhushan awardee and former
Ambassador to the USA &
former Member of Planning Commission of India.